


The Reward of Distrust 1

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: AU, Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: When Blair arrives at his warehouse home one night, he gets a strong feeling of danger.





	The Reward of Distrust 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'danger' in March 2017

The Reward of Distrust

by Bluewolf

As Blair drove along the road towards the warehouse he called home, he became aware of an increasing sense of danger.

Something wasn't right.

He had learned, years previously, to pay attention to the occasional instinct he had of something being wrong, and he wasn't about to ignore it now. He watched carefully as he neared the warehouse.

He didn't see anything, but that didn't mean he was just imagining things. He drove slowly past and noticed a light in a window of the other half of the building. The half that should be empty.

Someone else in the building this late at night? Not good. Glad that everything of value that he possessed was in his small 'office' at Rainier, he drove on to the next warehouse and stopped to think.

Although 'his' half of the building was 'officially' separate from the other half, the two halves were joined by a door. It was locked, and he didn't have a key... but that didn't mean there wasn't one, which was why he kept everything he valued at Rainier. He had learned distrust when he was still quite young - unlike his mother, who had been fooled over and over by charming con men, and had still never learned...

Blair dismissed the thought as irrelevant. Naomi would never learn caution, and he had realized that years previously. He led his own life, happy when he saw her, but expecting nothing from her.

His mind returned to his own situation.

Did he dare walk back, go into his side of the building, retrieve the one or two things that he did keep there, like his sleeping bag, his small portable TV and his small stock of food, or would he be wiser to wait till the morning? Indeed, would it be wiser just to abandon the few things he kept in the building?

At least he had returned Larry to the biology department a few days previously. If he hadn't, he would have had no choice but go in to 'rescue' the little ape.

What to do?

The awareness of danger hadn't gone away; if anything it was even stronger.

No - wiser to wait until morning - around 6am, it was unlikely that whoever was in the building would be awake, if they had stayed there overnight - and unlikely that if they hadn't stayed overnight they would be back quite that early.

Which left the question of where he should stay overnight.

Just sleeping in his car was one option, but if he did he shouldn't stay exactly where he was. It was too close to 'his' building, too obvious... but at the same time he didn't want to move too far away, because there was one other option; if the people - he assumed there was more than one - in the other half of the building left, he could get in and out again in time to move somewhere safer, instead of spending the rest of the night here on the street. In addition, he would have his sleeping bag to keep him warm.

He restarted the car and drove carefully into the yard of a warehouse on the opposite side of the street and another two down from the one he called home. There, he wouldn't be too obvious but he would be able to see if his unwanted neighbors left.

Time passed. The light in the window of the 'other half' of his warehouse remained lit, occasionally dimming as someone passed between it and the window.

All right. Blair sometimes remained awake and busy hours into the night, but he knew of few others who did. At the same time, he couldn't dismiss the possibility that another student who hadn't been able to get a small apartment hadn't rented that half of the building and was in process of getting settled in.

Though he wouldn't have been here himself if it hadn't been for Larry. It was his project with Larry that had seen him evicted from his last small apartment. It had taught him a lesson; no more projects revolving around Barbary apes... or even goldfish.

'No pets' was a rule too, too common in rented apartments.

He sighed. His rent for here was paid until the end of the month; he had thought he still had two weeks to find another actual apartment before he was homeless - he had had no intention of renewing his 'lease' anyway. This - someone moving into the other half of the building - just made finding another 'proper' apartment a little more urgent.

He had had a good reason for living in a derelict warehouse for the last few months, but even so he had always gone to bed at around midnight; anyone still moving around in one at - he peered at his watch - nearly 2am was unlikely to be using the place just for storage.

But still moving around at nearly 2am?

And... that sense of danger hadn't gone away. If anything, it was getting stronger.

And then something inside the building exploded, and Blair could see flames flickering.

He grabbed his cell phone and called fire and police. Then he ran quickly to his half of the building; it might be taking an unnecessary chance but if he could salvage the things he had in there...

The dividing wall had been damaged; there was a hole in it, with smoke pouring through. Blair ran to the part he had designated as his living area. The small TV was lying on the floor, its screen smashed. Ignoring it, he grabbed his sleeping bag, heaving away a heavy beam that was lying across it - realizing that if he had been there, in bed, he would have been injured - the duffel bag containing a change of clothes and the suitcase he used as a larder, and ran out again.

The suitcase was heavy enough that he dropped to a brisk walk as he returned to his car. He threw everything into the trunk and turned his attention back to the burning building.

There was no sign that anyone had left it.

He heard the approaching sirens, and moments later a fire engine drove up, a police car just behind it.

Blair took a deep breath and walked over to the police car; its occupants had just got out and were watching the firemen as they readied their hoses.

"Hello," Blair said.

"Ah - you the guy that called this in?"

"Yes. Blair Sandburg."

"Not many people around this area, especially at night."

Blair nodded. "I'm a grad student - a TA - at Rainier. I was working on a project until a few days ago that involved a Barbary ape, and the only place I could find to stay with the ape was here - in one of these warehouses. The owners are... willing to be quite flexible if they can get a few dollars income from property that is otherwise sitting empty; some small shopkeepers rent one to use as cheap storage. I'd paid till the end of the month, so I was still sleeping here although my project has now ended and I'm looking for a proper apartment.

"I saw a light on in this half of the building when I came... well, home - and I knew it was empty this morning. There was someone moving around inside - I could see a shadow against the light. And then there was the explosion. I haven't seen anyone come out."

"And which warehouse are you living in?"

"The further away half of that one."

The cop looked along the building to where smoke was puffing out of one of the furthest away windows. "Does that mean you've lost all your possessions?" He sounded surprisingly sympathetic.

"No. I kept pretty well everything in my office at Rainier - all I had in there was a sleeping bag, change of clothes, some food and a small TV that I needed for my project with Larry - the ape. After I called 911 I risked going in and managed to rescue everything but the TV - it's toast."

"What will you do now?"

"I might have to sleep in my car for the rest of tonight but I'll park it at Rainier. I'll have to make finding an apartment a priority for tomorrow, but I'm sure Dr. Stoddard will give me time off, under the circumstances. If you need me for anything, you can get me at Rainier - Hargrove Hall, Anthropology Department. If I'm not actually there, someone will know where I am."

Blair took one last look at the building that had been his home for the last five months, and went back to his car, grateful for the instinct that had told him, 'Danger'.


End file.
